Bertrand Layec of France will referee our Champions League quarter-final 1st leg clash against PSV Eindhoven on Tuesday night.

The 41-year old from Vannes in Brittany has been a referee since 1981. It took him seventeen years before getting promotion to top flight football in France, and in 2002 he was awarded his FIFA badge.

He refereed his first Champions League match in September 2004 as Valencia beat Anderlecht 2-0, Liverpool's Sissoko came on as a late substitute. This was his only Champions League game that season. He refereed one more game the following season, but this time around he has already refereed three games.

He has already refereed a Holland v England clash this season, just last month he was in the middle of AZ Alkmaar's 2-0 win over Newcastle United in the UEFA Cup.

Liverpool have had good results with French officials in the Champions League, and are undefeated so far. We also had a French referee when we defeated Alaves 5-4 to win the UEFA Cup in 2001.

He was the referee last September when a Peter Crouch goal gave England a 1-0 win in Macedonia in a EURO 2008 qualifier.

Layec was in charge of a recent Marseille game when Djibril Cisse broke the ankle of PSG's Mario Yepes. Cisse was surprisingly not shown a red card for the challenge, and the French FA did not suspend Cisse after tv evidence. Cisse scored Marseille's goal in a 1-1 draw.

His assistants are Christian Thoison and Eric Dansot, with Stephane Lannoy as the fourth official.

Some memorable matches involving Liverpool and French referees.

5th May 1966 - P.Schwinte - Liverpool's first European final ends in defeat as Borussia Dortmund win the Cup Winners' Cup 2-1 at Hampden Park.

25th May 1977 - R.Wurtz - Liverpool win the European Cup for the first time after beating Borussia Moechengladbach 3-1 in Rome.

27th Sept 1978 - M.Konrath - Nottingham Forest draw 0-0 at Anfield and we go out of the European Cup in the first round.

16th May 2001 - G.Veissiere - Liverpool beat Alaves 5-4 with a Golden Goal to win the UEFA Cup.

12th November 2002 - C.Colombo - Liverpool hit three goals in the second half to draw 3-3 at FC Basel, but it wasn't enough to qualify for the nest stage of the Champions League.

24th April 2005 - A.Sars - Liverpool draw 0-0 at Chelsea in the first leg of the Semi-Final of last season's Champions League.